After forming up until April it was sent west by rail where it was eventually assigned to the 31st Army of Western Front just prior to the summer offensive against the Rzhev salient.

His rank was modernized to major general of tank troops on November 10, 1942, and in the spring of 1943 he was briefly the acting commander of 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, but he was killed in action on June 22.

Late on June 21 the commander of Kiev Special Military District (soon Southwestern Front), Col. Gen. M. P. Kirponos, began sending orders to his armies to open their "red packets" of wartime instructions even though he had not yet been authorized to do so by the STAVKA.

An hour later he was contacted by Kirponos' chief of staff:General Maksim Purkayev called me up on the "Bodo" [encoded radio] and conveyed the conventional signal for putting the border cover plan into operation: "KOVO 1941".

In June this brigade served as the basis of the new 318th Rifle Division and Chervinskii remained in command, but became missing in action in July during the early stages of the German summer offensive.

While this date is officially considered the end of the offensive in Soviet sources, in fact bitter fighting continued west of Zubtsov into mid-September.

[22] On January 3, 1943, Colonel Tsyganov left the division and was placed at the disposal of the Front's Military Council, where he remained for a few months before being named as chief of staff of 8th Guards Rifle Corps.

He would later lead the 11th Guards Rifle Division and was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on April 19, 1945, eventually rising to the rank of colonel general in 1961.

The offensive resumed at 0730 hours on August 8 after a 30-minute artillery preparation, and the 164th attacked toward Sluzna in an effort to outflank the defenses on Hill 233.3, and overnight this village was abandoned to avoid encirclement.

[25] Gordov continued attacking on August 9–10 with the shock group on a very narrow front but was stymied at Laski and Gubino; the intervention of an ersatz German battalion appears to have narrowly prevented a Soviet breakthrough.

Sokolovskii's headquarters ordered the 8th Guards Cavalry Division, supported by self-propelled guns of the 142nd Regiment, into the gap to take the latter place and exploit toward Yelnya.

Instead of the obvious axis of advance straight up the railway to the city Sokolovskii decided to make his main effort in the 33rd Army sector near Novaya Berezovka.

As soon as a gap was forced General Gordov committed the 5th Mechanized Corps at Koshelevo which began to shove wrecked German battlegroups out of its path.

By 1330 hours on August 30 it became clear to the German command that Yelnya could not be held and orders for its evacuation were issued within minutes; the city was in Red Army hands by 1900.

[29] The offensive was renewed at 0545 hours on September 15 with another 90-minute artillery preparation is support of the 68th, 10th Guards, 21st and 33rd Armies against the positions of IX Corps west of Yelnya.

[30] As of October 1 the 33rd Army was still facing the depleted 78th Assault and 252nd Infantry Divisions of IX Corps roughly halfway between the Sozh and Dniepr Rivers.

In two days of fighting the Western Front armies were almost completely stymied; the Polish Division was able to carve out a wedge up to 3km deep west of Lenino at considerable cost, especially due to air attacks.

When the offensive ended on October 18 it had cost the Poles nearly 3,000 casualties and 33rd Army's remaining divisions a further 1,700 personnel, although the 164th largely escaped the carnage as it was not actively engaged.

Only by releasing the 144th Division to battle on November 17 was his Army able to secure a 10km-wide and 3-4km deep bridgehead on the west bank of the Rossasenka River by the end of the next day, at which point the offensive collapsed from exhaustion.

[33] Shortly after this 33rd Army was directed to redeploy substantially to the north to reinforce the left wing of 1st Baltic Front as it attempted to encircle and liberate the city of Vitebsk.

The shock groups forced the defenders back about 1,000 metres on the first day but the commitment of second echelon divisions on December 24 enlarged the penetration to a depth of 2-3km.

Despite the arrival of a battlegroup of Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadier Division on December 25 the entire 33rd Army burst forward from 2-7km, reaching to within 20km of Vitebsk's city center.

[35] On New Year's Day General Revyakin left the division to take command of 65th Corps, but he was soon made the STAVKA representative to 1st Belorussian Front.

[36] When the offensive was renewed again on February 3 the 65th Corps was part of the Army's shock group, assigned to continue the drive to encircle Vitebsk from the south, although now aiming for a far shallower envelopment.

Gordov ordered his corps commanders to commit their second echelon divisions the next day, but the Luchesa River, only partly frozen and with deep, steep banks, proved a formidable obstacle.

In three days of fighting the combined force pushed forward and on February 11 managed to cross the Luchesa northwest of Starintsy and took a bridgehead of its own at Mikhailovo.

Sokolovskii returned to his strategy of mid-January, planning to expand the salient southeast of Vitebsk farther to the south, this time employing three rifle corps, not including the 65th, on a 12km-wide front, supported by two tank brigades.

The officer cadre, who arrived as replacements, took over their subunits in their jumping-off positions and, after several hours, led them in the offensive.In consequences of such failings and many more, on April 12 Sokolovskii was removed from Front command, joining Gordov, who had already been cashiered.

The troops who participated in the liberation of Vitebsk, by the order of the Supreme High Command of 26 June 1944 and a commendation in Moscow are given a salute of 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.

[51] When the German Operation Doppelkopf began on August 14 the division was positioned south of Raseiniai, and one of its rifle regiments, along with the 18th Guards Tank Brigade, were encircled at the village of Kalnuiai.